If you do not believe in God or religion, what defines your morals? Yourself?

Question

If you defined your own morals, then you could justify any action, thought, or whim you desired to act upon. Anyways, you would be making the rules wouldn't you? What would stop you from doing wrong? How could there be wrong for you? Would you have to go through and list every action "good" or "bad?" What would you do if your morals conflicted with someone esle? How do you defend them?

I could go on, but I'll stop there. I am truly not trying to attack any one group of people; I sincerely want to know.

Answer 1

We are a bi-product of both nature and nurture. We see examples of how people treat each other and live daily in our family, our towns, or culture, our society, personal experience and now a global society. That's a lot of illustrations to process, but something drives us to choose -- call it a conscious, if you will, but there does seem to be an inner compass to humankind that directs our actions. Overall I still believe that simply treating others as you would wish to be treated is a good rule, and its one that appears in a wide variety of philosophical and religious writigns.

Answer 2

No not at all, I find my moral compass through learning and reading. My learning and reading have gone together excellently, with my natural powers of observation. I understand cause and effect very well.By reading, observing putting to use the lessons of the past. Hammurabi's laws are a good place to start, the structure of early Democracies like the Athenian Democracy. There have been a wealth of brilliant philosophers to draw from.
Even some of the early periods in Roman Law when the people still had a say. There are many more sources that can create a very strong moral character, if you have good parents who teach you to love knowledge and humanity for all it's strengths and many frailties.

Answer 3

You have a legitimate question and let me start by saying there are MANY people around the world who from birth till death grow up with no type of organized religion in their lives. There have been MANY people throughout history that led very religious lives from day one and ended up being serial killers, rapists, burglars or whatever. In my situation I did not have a religious upbringing but was surrounded by people who loved me and taught me right from wrong without any religious doctrine. I now belong to the Unitarian religion that has no written laws or religious dogma but is very involved in making the world a better place through respect and open-mindedness. You ask how could there be wrong for us?? The same as anyone else, that behaviour is normally dealt with by means of laws and punishment. If you really think about it we know what's right and what's wrong. It's not merely because a particular group or book tells us so. That's just my opinion.

Answer 4

true i decide my morals, but they are based on a sound set of principals. I try to see each situation from the other person's shoes as best i can, and i firmly believe in "the golden rule" treat others as you wish to be treated, those two things alone set me aside from some (religious) people who do neither and judge based on a set of morals that they feel everyone should adhere to lest they be "in the wrong" (sinners) and treated as such.

yes i am athiest, but i come from a christian family, and even if i didn't I still think the general rules would apply. I don't think that not having (double negative) someone (thing) watching over my shoulder would truly affect my judgement and the principals that i hold dear in my own life.

Your same arguement can be used in the reverse, because I know quite a lot of "religious" people who judge, mistreat, look down, exploit, etc. people and feel that it is ok when they go to church and either ask for forgiveness... or simply overlook it because the only thing that matters is whether or not they believe... and there are religious zealots, who take it to the extreme and try to force their views on people (gay marriage, abortion clinic murders, the god hates f#gs guy)

So while yes, the notion of having a set concrete all encompassing set of morals written out and handed down through time seems very appealing, but in practice, each person determines how they choose to live their lives in this world. regardless of beliefs.

and for me, choosing to live my life this way concretes these principals as fundamental in my everyday life more-so than if I was told to live my life this way ... some athiests do like to be good people...

Answer 5

I define my own morals, yes. I have a head on my shoulders and I can decide what I think is right or wrong. I don't change my morals to justify my actions- my lack of religion doesn't change the fact that I am human and able to control my actions and thoughts.

You seem to be assuming that people who aren't religious can't feel guilt or remorse.

Answer 6

As opposed to only being bribed or threatened into doing good? U presume i have no morals because i don't believe in god, yet i have never broken any law (not so much as a speeding ticket) and i have never intentionally hurt anyone, the prisons of the world, not just the US are filled with religious ppl not atheists. I am moral because my parents taught me right from wrong, that it is not nice to be hurt so i should never hurt others because i understand that pain. I don't commit crime because i obey the laws set out by society. Atheism has no connection to anarchy!

Answer 7

Everyone knows what's wrong. If I kill some one I cut their life short and deprive them of many years, this can't be justified, if I steal I'm taking something that doesn't belong to me and causing the suffering of another person. It takes simple reason and emption. Answer me this, if you had never heard of religion do you tihnk you'd be a mindless emotionless moralless robot? I do define my own morals and they are fundamentally different from the morals I heard most form as a kid (the Christian morals), proof as far as I'm concerned you can think it out for yourself and decide what's right or wrong.

Answer 8

Society and Humanism establish the norms of behavior for me. I believe killing is wrong because I believe that everyone has a right to live their life in the same way that I have a right to live my life. I also do not kill because society has evolved rules for common behavior that allow people to live together in complex societies. The difference between me and most Christians I have met is that I don't care what your motivations are for not killing people. So long as you leave everyone alone to enjoy their own life, I could care less if you are a Christian, Atheist, Muslim, Buddhist, or any other theological or non-theological creature.

Most Christians, on the other hand, seem unable to function unless they are convincing others to do or not do things for the same motivations as Christians. It is not enough that I do not kill people or steal: they insist upon trying to make me believe in their fantasy, and that gets incredibly old.

Answer 9

Short answer: any of the hundreds of moral codes out there that aren't religious based.

Long Answer: Like any moral code, it's based on what you've been brought up to believe, as well as (HOPEFULLY) what you choose to believe after you develop enough as a person to be able to rationally make those choices for yourself. As such, you'll move beyond the basic moral code into something thats more mature for you as a person and us as a society.

Answer 10

Try not to think within that small boundary that you have set for yourself. Imagine that we as humans have learned how to treat each other centuries ago, before there were even 'gods'. I worry about a christian that believes he needs someone else to set some rules up for him to follow, instead of following his heart and human instincts. Yes, we may have some bad ones, but we have some good ones, too.